Other Voices On Eminent Domain

July 14, 2005

U.S. of Zimbabwe

In 1763, on the conclusion of the French and Indian War, King George III proclaimed all land west of the transmontane off-limits to British subjects, even if those subjects had patents on land in that region and had been paying Crown taxes on it. Those lands would be at the disposal of the Crown and could be settled and developed only with Crown approval and the connivance of developers with political connections in the mother country.

This wholesale confiscation of private property must have been on the minds of the Framers when they drafted Article V of the Constitution 28 years later to protect individuals from the "public interest" avarice of rapacious governments and would-be tyrants petit and omnivorous.

Fundamentally, there is no difference between how eminent domain is practiced in America and how Robert Mugabe practices it in the "public interest" in Harare, Zimbabwe, to clear the capital of urban "blight," except that there is much more property here to bulldoze and hand over to political cronies than in Harare. The U.S. Supreme Court justices who endorsed eminent domain in the Kelo case ought to be made to read a history of the murderous reign of Mugabe, to better understand the beast they have let loose on America.

In Zimbabwe, Mugabe's thugs wear cast-off uniforms from other countries and carry Red Chinese weapons to evict homeowners. If a property owner in New London, Conn., refuses to vacate his property when the bulldozers show up, the government will call in SWAT teams to accomplish the same end. But regardless of the sophistication of the force employed, it is rule by the point of a gun.

This is now far less a free country than most people might imagine.

Edward Cline

Yorktown

Battle lost

The U.S. Supreme Court has given the government another way to combat crime now. With the new ruling concerning eminent domain, if there's an area where crime runs rampant, like the East End in Newport News, now all that is needed is to line the bulldozers up and clear 'em out.

Private-sector interests don't care if people have a place to live or not. They will clean the poor out and replace them with expensive lodgings, increasing the tax base and at the same time solving the crime problems of an area.

America doesn't have to worry about some super power coming to our shores, invading and taking over. Our own government is going to wind up being the instrument of our destruction. Readers should call, write and e-mail their Congress member today and let him or her know that they are watching and come Election Day their voice is going to be heard. It's the only protection we have as a nation. We lost a big battle with this decision handed down by the land's highest court.

Dave Koonce

Gloucester

Restore our rights

I have lived in four democracies, having become an American citizen more than a decade ago. A major difference between America and other democracies is the way we view personal freedom and property rights. These rights exist elsewhere but are not respected and interpreted in the same way. Indeed, the greater good, as defined by government, often overrides them.

I regret, indeed mourn, the diminishing of our rights to property, which also affects our freedom as a people.

America stood alone as champions of personal freedom and property rights. With the stroke of a pen, the U.S. Supreme Court has placed us in the lower rung of world democracies in respect to these rights.

How can we, as Americans, restore the rights taken from us by an appointed judiciary?